Cold Blooded Murders

Alex Josey

Sujets

• True crime
• Singapore
• Singapour

Informations

• Publié par: Marshall Cavendish International (Asia) PTE LTD
• Date de parution: 01 juillet 2009
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9789814351850
• Langue: English

Extrait

COLD BLOODED MURDERS
 
 
ALEX JOSEY
 
 
 

© 2011 Marshall Cavendish International(Asia) Private Limited
 
The Trials of Sunny Ang first published in1973 by Asia Pacific Press; Pulau Senang—The Experiment That Failed first published in 1980 by Times BooksInternational.
Published by Marshall Cavendish Editions
An imprint of Marshall CavendishInternational
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Design concept and illustrations by LockHong Liang
Images by stock.xchng and Julia Starr
 
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eISBN: 978-981-435-185-0
Contents
 
TheTrial of Sunny Ang
Foreword
Verdict
The Inquiry
What is Murder?
The Trial: Case For TheProsecution
The Trial: The Defence
Prosecution’s Closing Speech
Summing Up
The Appeal
Appeal To Privy Council
Psychopath
The End
The Perfect Murder
Pulau Senang-The Experiment thatFailed
Foreword
Introduction
Daniel Button’s Belief
Gangsters And Secret Societies
The Experiment
Criticism
Destruction
Retribution
The Trial
The Summing Up
The End
Why Did The Experiment Fail?

The Trial of Sunny Ang
 
Foreword
 
This is a true story of a young manwho planned what he thought was the perfect crime.
 
He might have succeeded had not hisimpatience to collect the insurance on the girl he murdered arouse thesuspicions of the police.
Highly intelligent, he realized this mighthappen: he did not care. He believed this was a risk he could well afford totake. Having carried out a faultless murder, in effect he challenged the stateprosecutor to a deadly battle of wits. That was his fatal mistake.
—Alex Josey
 
Pulau Dua or the Sisters Islands
Pulau Dua are two little islandsseparated by a straits, about 700 feet apart. The straits vary in depth between30 and 35 feet.
“The islands are about four miles fromJardine Steps in Singapore Harbour and they are among the southernmost islandsof the Southern Islands, beyond which stretches the open seas, with Indonesiain the distance.
... the waters are extremely hazardous. Theyare dangerous because of the remarkable eddies and swirls which occur there,and the speed of the current around the islands varies with the speed of thetides from half a knot to some four knots.”
—Crown Counsel
Verdict
 
“Members of the jury, have youagreed upon your verdict?”
“Yes.”
“What is your verdict?”
“Guilty.”
“Is that unanimous or by a majority?”
“It is unanimous.”
Justice Buttrose addressed the young man inthe dock, “Ang, the jury have by a unanimous verdict found you guilty of thiscrime of murder, and I accordingly convict you.” The judge turned to counsel.“Do either of you wish to address me?”
“No, my Lord.”
Justice Buttrose said, “Ang you have beenconvicted by the unanimous verdict of the jury of a terrible crime. You killedthis young girl Jenny, whose only fault apparently was that she had themisfortune to fall in love with you, and to give you everything she possessed:her all. You killed her for personal gain. It is a crime cunningly contrived togive the appearance of an accident, and it was carried out with consummatecoolness and nerve. At long last the time has come for you to pay the penaltyfor your dreadful deed.”
Ang showed no emotion. The faint smile,which had been on his thin lips through most of the 13 days’ trial, was stillthere as the judge sentenced him to death. Outside the courtroom, hislaw-student sister, Juliet Ang, broke down and cried.
***
August 1963 was a month of intense politicalactivity in the tropical island-state of Singapore. Strong feeling had also beenaroused by the discovery, by workmen digging foundations, of human bones,further proof of Japanese military atrocities during the Second World War. Mostof Singapore’s population of some two million are of Chinese origin: theysuffered considerably during the Japanese occupation. Politically, Singapore(lying at the foot of the Malay Peninsula, an island of some 225 square miles,most of the equatorial swamps and jungle turned into modern roads, andindustrial sites and commercial centres) was fast moving into completeindependence through merger with Malaya and the creation of Malaysia. Thisexperiment in multiracialism regrettably failed when Singapore was separatedfrom Malaysia almost exactly two years later.
In August 1963, Singapore papers were fullof the sensational case in England involving Christine Keeler and a BritishCabinet Minister. In Moscow, leaders of the United States and the Soviet Uniondrank champagne after signing the test-ban treaty. Sir Alec Home, the BritishPrime Minister, said that the world had become a safer place.
In Washington, President Kennedy’stwo-day-old son died in hospital. Monks in Vietnam burnt themselves to death.In Britain, the Great Train Robbery of more than £2.5 million thrilled theworld. In Kuala Lumpur, capital of Malaysia (connected to Singapore by amile-long causeway), a Member of Parliament accused the Minister of Education,Abdul Rahim bin Haji Talib, of corruption. “Say that outside,” demanded theMinister. Obligingly, the Member did. The Minister took him to Court, and lost.
Lord Nuffield died, and ended an era. Therewas a drought in Singapore, where 71 secret society gangsters were charged withmurder during a. riot at an open prison on a nearby isle, Pulau Senang, theprevious month. Eighteen were later hanged.
During much of August 1963, Singapore waspreparing for Malaysia Day, the last day of the month when the creation ofMalaysia would be celebrated. Indonesia, just across the waters, was alreadyobjecting, and Tunku Abdul Rahman, then Malaya’s Prime Minister, had flown toManila to talk to President Sukarno and President Macapagal. Agreement wasreached that the United Nations be asked to satisfy themselves (which they did)that the Borneo states of Sabah and Sarawak in fact wanted to become part ofMalaysia. At these talks Sukarno described the Tunku as ‘a great statesman’,and Macapagal ‘a great leader of Asia’. For his part, the Tunku was prepared toadmit that Sukarno and Macapagal were both ‘dynamic leaders who have foughtcolonialism and imperialism’. Within days the agreement completely collapsed.After abandoning the United Nations, Sukarno spent much of the following threeyears trying to smash Malaysia.
On Sunday, 25 August 1963, 100,000 peopleassembled on the grassy padang in front of Singapore’s City Hall, next to theCourts, to demand that Japan pay SGD$50 million as a gesture of atonement fortheir war atrocities to civilians during the occupation. During that month ofAugust feelings were running high for many reasons. Political tension wasapparent. Communist elements were trying to exploit every issue they thoughtcould be distorted to embarrass the government: they did all they could tofrighten, confuse and threaten the people over Singapore’s impending mergerwith Malaysia.
***
Against this excited and troubledbackground, a news item in TheStraits Times headed ‘Barmaid out diving withboyfriend disappears’ aroused no more than casual interest. Nobody knew thenthat nearly two years later, this Tuesday afternoon swimming tragedy was toform the substance of one of the most remarkable murder trials ever heard inthe Far East. The Straits Times report, obtained from the police, read as follows;
A barmaid, Cheok Cheng Kid,22, went skin-diving with her boyfriend off Pulau Dua at 2:30 pm yesterday.Three hours later she vanished in the sea. Until late today Marine Policelaunches were searching the sea off the island but found no trace of Cheok’sbody. Cheok had hired a motor sampan with Sunny Ang, 24, part-time law student,at Jardine Steps yesterday afternoon. About 3:00 pm they reached Pulau Dua nearSt John’s Island. They fitted on their goggles, mouthpiece, flippers andcompressed air cylinders and dived from the sampan in turns in search of coral.After several dives they took off their gear and rested for a little while.They then decided to start diving again. While Mr Ang was fitting on his gear,Cheok plunged into the water. Mr Ang found a break in his breathing apparatusand asked the boatman to help him repair it. When he failed to repair the leakhe signalled Cheok to surface. He tugged at her lifeline several times until itsnapped before he gave up and rushed to nearby St John’s Island to report tothe Marine Police. The police, helped by five islanders, rushed to the sceneand dived several times in search of Cheok, but found no traces of her. Cheoklived at Tanglin Halt and worked in a bar